A roadmap to breaking free from the harm that digital technology does to kids and reclaiming the beauty, wonder, and true purpose of childhood-by a leading tech policy expert
It's no secret that addictive digital technologies like smart phones and social media apps are harming a generation of kids socially, mentally, and even physically. But a workable solution to this harm seems elusive: after all, don't kids need phones, and won't they be socially isolated without them?
Clare Morell, senior policy analyst and director of the Technology and Human Flourishing Project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, argues that the answer is no. The approach we've taken up to now hasn't worked; but that there is another way.
With The Tech Exit, Morell exposes the ways parents have been wrongly led to believe that the dangers of tech are manageable and that harm reduction measures like parental controls are any match for the harms. Drawing on dozens of interviews with experts, families who have gone tech-free, and her own work as a policy expert, Morell maps a doable pathway to freedom from digital technology for families, local communities, and society, showing along the way that digital technology is anything but necessary for children to live full, happy, healthy, socially normal lives.
The Tech Exit is necessary reading for any parent who has felt stuck between an awareness of the dangers of tech for kids and the feeling that digital technology is inevitable and necessary. Morell's message is simple and compelling: you and your family can be free. The life you want for your children is within reach. Clare Morell is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) and director of EPPC's Technology and Human Flourishing Project. Her work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The New York Post, Newsweek, National Review, The Hill, The Dispatch, National Affairs, Washington Examiner, Deseret News, The Federalist, The American Conservative, Public Discourse, WORLD Opinions, American Affairs, The Washington Times, and The Daily Signal. She frequently consults state legislators and members of Congress on technology policy, and has helped draft legislation to protect children online. She, her husband, and their three children live out their Tech Exit life together in Washington, D.C.
